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Science 20 July 1984:
Vol. 225. no. 4659, pp. 288 - 291
DOI: 10.1126/science.225.4659.288
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Articles

The 1984 Morgan Hill, California, Earthquake

W. H. Bakun 1, M. M. Clark 1, R. S. Cockerham 1, W. L. Ellsworth 1, A. G. Lindh 1, W. H. Prescott 1, A. F. Shakal 2, and P. Spudich 1

1 U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, California 94025.
2 California Division of Mines and Geology, Sacramento 95814.

The Morgan Hill, California, earthquake (magnitude 6.1) of 24 April 1984 ruptured a 30-kilometer-long segment of the Calaveras fault zone to the east of San Jose. Although it was recognized in 1980 that an earthquake of magnitude 6 occurred on this segment in 1911 and that a repeat of this event might reasonably be expected, no short-term precursors were noted and so the time of the 1984 earthquake was not predicted. Unilateral rupture propagation toward the south-southeast and an energetic late source of seismic radiation located near the southeast end of the rupture zone contributed to the highly focused pattern of strong motion, including an exceptionally large horizontal acceleration of 1.29g at a site on a dam abutment near the southeast end of the rupture zone.

Submitted on May 24, 1984
Accepted on June 13, 1984


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
A Study of Possible Ground-Motion Amplification at the Coyote Lake Dam, California.
(2004)
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Seismic activity of the San Francisco Bay region.
W. H. Bakun (1999)
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Earthquake size as a function of fault slip rate.
J. G. Anderson, S. G. Wesnousky, and M. W. Stirling (1996)
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 86, 683-690
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Large accelerations and tectonic setting of the May 1993 Shumagin Islands earthquake sequence.
G. A. Abers, J. Beavan, S. Horton, S. Jaume, and E. Triep (1995)
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 85, 1730-1738
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Heterogeneous distribution of dynamic stress drop and relative fault strength recovered from the results of waveform inversion: the 1984 Morgan Hill, California, earthquake.
T. Mikumo and T. Miyatake (1995)
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 85, 178-193
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Fine Structure of the Landers Fault Zone: Segmentation and the Rupture Process.
Y.-G. Li, Y.-G. Li, K. Aki, J. E. Vidale, W. H. K. Lee, and C. J. Marone (1994)
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Faulting geometry and slip from co-seismic elevation changes: The 18 October 1989, Loma Prieta, California, earthquake.
G. A. MARSHALL, R. S. STEIN, and W. THATCHER (1991)
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 81, 1660-1693
   Abstract »    PDF »
Attenuation and backscattering from local coda.
A. M. DAINTY, R. M. DUCKWORTH, and A. TIE (1987)
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 77, 1728-1747
   Abstract »    PDF »
Calculation of strong ground motion due to an extended earthquake source in a laterally varying structure.
V. F. CORMIER and G. C. BEROZA (1987)
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 77, 1-13
   Abstract »    PDF »
Rupture history of the 1984 Morgan Hill, California, earthquake from the inversion of strong motion records.
S. H. HARTZELL and T. H. HEATON (1986)
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 76, 649-674
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Observation of a double event at regional distances: The Morgan Hill earthquake of 24 April 1984.
N. A. ABRAHAMSON and R. B. DARRAGH (1985)
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 75, 1461-1464
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The Parkfield, California, Earthquake Prediction Experiment.
W. H. Bakun, W. H. Bakun, and A. G. Lindh (1985)
Science 229, 619-624
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Role of Fault Bends in the Initiation and Termination of Earthquake Rupture.
G. King, G. KING, and J. NABEcaronLEK (1985)
Science 228, 984-987
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An Encouraging Long-Term Quake "Forecast": The anticipation of the size and location of last April's Morgan Hill earthquake was two-thirds of a prediction; predicting a precise time remains out of reach.
R. A. KERR (1984)
Science 225, 300-301
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